Green activists want balance on environment

I read and enjoy Gordon Robinson's columns, but would like to gently take him to task for his comment ('Peter's pie in the sky', Sunday Gleaner, January 13, 2013) with regard to "the environmentalists".

He suggests we are anti-road. We are not. What we are saying is this:

1. Don't build roads in such a way that they will cause flooding, either nearby or remotely.

2. Don't build roads that will collapse because of failure to consider geological features.

3. Don't take out standing forests - we need these to protect our water resources and soils and make us more resilient in the face of storms and climate change.

4. Don't build roads too close to the coast - they are likely to be inundated.

5. In the context of scarce resources, unsustainable debt and the environmental impacts of roads, build roads that are necessary and of high priority.

6. Accept and investigate the negative economic impacts of roads (yes, there are some), which sometimes cut off small towns and communities and cause the destruction of agricultural land.

That's it. We know - believe me, we know - "man deh yah" and the earth is not pristine. We are just advocating that it not be turned into a wasteland, fit for neither man nor beast.